Sea snails yield pain relief

MELBOURNE - Australian biotech research group Amrad Corp yesterday said it would accelerate development of a powerful pain killer it had derived from cone snails on the Great Barrier Reef after successful early clinical trials.

Amrad found in trials on cancer patients with severe chronic pain that its AM336 compound, believed to be much stronger than morphine but without the side effects, worked so well that patients chose to continue treatment beyond the 12-day study.

"These early findings are showing that AM336 has the potential to treat one of the most distressing symptoms of cancer, the pain," Amrad managing director Sandra Webb said in a statement.

Shares in Amrad, considered to have the most compounds at advanced stages of development among Australia's biotech groups, were up 4.1 per cent at $A1.26 in early trade. But its shares remained well below highs of near $A2.80 reached five years ago when the company also had a drug marketing arm.

Amrad plans to meet the United States Food and Drug Administration in March to discuss a development plan for AM336.

It said AM336 might be able to overcome the side effects and long-term tolerance limit encountered with typically used narcotic painkillers such as morphine.

The potential market size for such drugs was valued at $US400 million ($NZ970.16 million), the company said.

- REUTERS

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